As you may know by now, Auckland is at COVID-19 Alert Level 3 as of 12:00 noon on Wednesday 12 August. Many of our services will be closed or change, please use our Contact Page to know more. We request you to keep hygiene front of mind and continue tracking where you have been.
If you are feeling unwell, please stay home. If you present COVID-19 symptoms, please call your doctor, iwi health provider or healthline on on 0800 779 997 to organise a COVID-19 test.
In case of emergency, please dial 111, for support and information about COVID-19 call the free government helpline on 0800 779 997 (8am–1am, 7 days a week) or visit covid19.govt.nz
Updates for Each Service
Below, we’ve listed updates and changes for each specific service that is being affected by COVID-19, and what you should know if you rely on Lifewise for any help. The services we’re covering here are:
- Merge Café
- Housing First (Auckland and Rotorua)
- Health and Disability Services
- Family Services
- Early Childhood Education
Merge Café
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 Alert Level 3, Merge Café is closed until further notice.
Any updates on the operations of Merge Café and its food service will be provided as soon as received. Please check our Facebook page for updates.
Housing First
For both the Auckland and Rotorua Housing First Communities, our team will remain on call and available for support. All tenants have been contacted and informed of the new measures and will be receiving a weekly food package. For those tenants who need wrap around support, the Housing First team is available and will be following the strict guidelines imposed by the Ministry of Health.
At Lifewise Rotorua, both our Supported Accommodation and Housing First Rotorua services will continue.
Supported Accommodation (Lifewise Rotorua) sarahl@lifewise.org.nz / 07 3486 239
Housing First Rotorua teporaa@lifewise.org.nz
Emergency Housing update – 17 August 2020
Since Auckland moved into Alert Level 3, Lifewise has been working with the rough sleeping community to ensure they have access to health providers, resources and people to talk to. We are also working collaboratively with other service providers to help those people who are experiencing food insecurity.
For people who were housed in temporary motel accommodation during Alert Level 4, Lifewise continues to work with them, providing a wraparound service. We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other organisations to ensure people have access to health and mental health services.
As yet we haven’t seen great numbers of people coming forward from the street community looking for housing. Most are either already housed, or are resistant generally due to co-existing addiction or mental health reasons.
Health and Disability Services
Our teams will continue to work with our existing clients. Employees who need to register with Healthline to be eligible for leave payment due to self-isolation should register at https://healthy.org.nz/. PLEASE DO NOT RING HEALTHLINE.
Health and Disability Services for Elderly
For all enquiries relating to our elderly person service please call on 09 623 7631
Please leave a message and we will get back to you. Please be patient, our lines are very busy. Your call is important to us and we will try to respond within 24 hours.
Lifewise Disability Services
If you are concerned about your Individualised Funding, please contact one of the people below. Emails or texts are easier to manage. If necessary, we will phone you back. Please be patient, we are trying to answer all queries within 24 hours.
Lifewise Family Services
As per the government’s COVID-19 alert levels, our office at 3131 Great North Road, New Lynn is now closed. We expect to re-open when the government announces that we are back at Level 2. Where possible, our staff are working from home to ensure our essential services are still available.
Please call 09 818 6834 to speak to someone during normal business hours. Our on–call social worker remains available for urgent foster care queries after hours (via main number). Please be aware that during this time it may take us longer than usual to respond to queries.
Lifewise Family Services – 09 818 6834 or 0800 003 172
Sher (Service Manager): 021 0835 5309
Email: familyservices@lifewise.org.nz
Jess (Administrator): 021 530 581
(Please call this number if you have a delivery for our office)
Early Childhood Education
All our Lifewise ECE centres are closed during Alert Level 3.
No fees will be charged during this time.
We appreciate this is a sudden and significant change and will be heavily disruptive for many people in our community. If you have alternate childcare arrangements available, we ask that you please utilise these. This will allow us to support our staff with vulnerable family members as well.
We continue to ask that children who are not well stay home, as this is for the safety of the other children and families enrolled with us.
Your child will be looking to you for guidance about this decision. Parents, caregivers, whanau and teachers will have a particularly important part to play in reassuring children at this time. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read the information put together by the Ministry of Education to support your conversations with your children – Talking to children about COVID-19.
To everyone who has been affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand, stay strong and stay safe. Your community will rally around you, and if you are ever in need of help you can always reach out to Lifewise.
Be strong, be kind.
Kia kaha.
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